QuoteAny advice or tips would be great.

I wonder if we told you about George Schreyers Tips pages. He stopped posting a while ago, but he exhaustively covers the earlier products.
http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips1/big_hauler_tips.html

Quotehave you tried replacing the brushes in your locomotive

You are in luck. A gent over on MLS had the same problem and found a solution. Basically, he put a strip of phosphor-bronze (springy) over the brush holders resting on the hubs, and used some old Kadee springs in the brush holes to suspend it on the axles.
https://www.mylargescale.com/threads/power-pickup-brushes-for-older-bachmann-spectrum-2-8-0-consolidated.91625/#post-1165559

I assume you found the 81294-2-Bachmann-Parts diagram. The motor is shown on page 3, with the gears, etc. It is on the 2-8-0 Part page:
https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=69_142

If you Google "site:bachmanntrains.com consolidation motor" you will find many threads here on this, and also google "site:mylargescale.com bachmann connie motor".

I am surprised you had to drill out the screws. I have never heard or experienced a problem getting them out - and I am working on a 2-8-0 conversion at the moment - as long as you have the right size Phillips screwdriver and you don't destroy the screw heads.

Well, further poking around came up with a set of drawings in the "Product Reference" section including the wiring:
https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/G816X-IS001-2_WIRING_CONNECTION.pdf

I missed it because the list has "LS 2-6-0 Mogul", which could be either of the 2-6-0s.

I have a 2-8-0 which has a broken crank on the drive axle. Panic over - I found one on a loco converted to stephenson's valve gear.

Hi all,
I have acquired a tender from an Indie 2-6-0, which claims to be a Spectrum. It has 2 plugs - one 2-pin and a 4-pin.  There is no wiring diagram on the Parts listing. Anyone know what the wires do?

Quote from: Rluke on April 25, 2021, 03:20:56 PM
I have one of these Big Hauler 2-4-2 locomotives.  I am having trouble with it kind of "bouncing" down the track.  A search on this forum leads me to believe that I have the same gear issue as discussed in this post.  There was a suggestion made to go to the NSL site to find a replacement gear.  Has anyone had recent success finding Big Hauler gears on that site?  I am not even sure what I am looking for when I get to the [Gear Menu] over there.

Thanks
Rich

Rich, as far as I know, NWSL don't sell a replacement gear for the 2-4-2. (Look at the bottom of their gears-2 pdf from the Old Catalog Pages - page 12.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0250/4032/2669/files/Gears_2_2.pdf?263)

I suggest you contact Jerry Yeramian at the above email and buy one from him.

On the photos, it appears the tender has the same trucks as the Spectrum 2-6-0/4-4-0. Much nicer.

I use shrink wrap black tube. It's flexible and available in many sizes.

Quotea guy who can make these gears named Jiro Yeramian

He posts on Facebook and his email is girotek (at) rcn.com. He has lots of gears and I have used a few.

The board on the motors is usually noise suppression for DCC decoders, I think.

I would also suggest you can easily retrofit a new motor and use the new brass gears. It's relatively simple to pull a gear of a motor shaft and fit it on a new motor.

There's a thread over on Largescalecentral.com about the 2-8-0 gears, and a description for a guy about replacing the motor and gears with the C-19 unit.

http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/31174/spectrum-2-8-0-fn3-gearbox-issues

First let me say I have not found an easy fix. The axle is very complicated and I used a wheel puller and a gear puller, not tools in the average persons kit.

I started woth some bevel gears I found at Aliexpress.



The gear had to be lightly sanded and the width reduced. Then I drilled it out 3mm and filed the holet to an oblong shape as both axle and driveshaft have flats and are 3.2mm diameter.



The gear puller took the gear off the driveshaft:



The wheel puller was used to get the wheel off. NOTE that there is a tiny bolt in the end of the axle that must be removed, the hub taken off, and then the bolt must be replaced tightly into the axle as it takes all the strain of the wheel puller.



There's a full essay with lots more photos here:
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/31279/bachmann-rail-truck-axle-fix-maybe

QuoteWill the new style gen 6 pilot easily mount into an older 5th gen Annie chassis?
If so, how does it mount?  Does it just screw on the bottom of the chassis?
Does the new style still need weights added above the axles to improve tracking and reduce derailments?

I am not certain, not having a gen6 handy, but I have not seen any comment or remarks about the pilot being changed. It still fits on the long screw under the smokebox in the gen5.  (I am happy to be corrected by someone with a gen6 chassis!)

I do not suscribe the the "add weights" solution. The pilot truck is long and rigid, and a solution is to rfemove the 2 nylon spacers that hold the two pickup strips in the frame. (One has an arrow for direction - if you remove it, put some tape on that end so you know which way round the truck should be!)
Once you take the spacers out, insulate the truck with a strip of tape on one metal strip, or you will get short-circuits.
The truck will now be loose and floppy, with the metal strips holding the wheels in the right place, and it will track perfectly on rough track.

Quoteglad that you and your friend are having fun with it

Thanks Bill. That's pretty much what I thought. The front loco on the video is (was) stock so it is probably gen2 or 3, certainly not as fancy as the gen5 second loco!

Jerry's email is girotek@rcn.com. He's quite active on Facebook and does some amazing ESU smoke/sound/DCC conversions. Besides making gears!

He also has the small double-gear for the 2-8-0 and 2-6-0/4-4-0. See
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/29767/a-different-spectrum-4-4-0-gear-problem/view/post_id/392637